Her hoofsteps echoed in the cavernous crystal palace. Shadows were being cast all over the castle as the sun began to slip into the final throes of its downward slope in the sky. Death was all around Twilight today, it seemed. She noticed that Granny Smith had been sleeping more often than not. Rarity had been inundated with requests from all three of her boutiques, always working, always searching for inspiration; Applejack needed to get the harvest done for the year before the winter moved in, the bits from the latest harvest going to help expand the farm’s production capabilities; Rainbow Dash was busy preparing for the onslaught of winter, and attending the Wonderbolts Academy. Mayor Mare had retired, but still oversaw the running of the leaves festival, and all of her other friends were living their lives. They were all busy with something, and Twilight found less and less time to spend with them as her own duties began taking over.
The more she mulled things over, the more she came to realise that the world was changing. They weren’t young mares anymore, able to sit up all night by the light of a dying lamp telling each other ghost stories. They were no longer able to pop in on each other for a quick cup of tea and a light lunch. They couldn’t spontaneously take their pets out for a play date. Everything had to be meticulously planned weeks, or even months, in advance, and she was becoming sick of it.
More than that, however, was the fact that young Twilight Sparkle had come to the conclusion that all of her friends were beginning to age. They were rapidly approaching the stage where they looked for less spontaneity, less adventures, craving instead for structure and stability. They were, each of them, growing up, and Twilight had been hit with the realisation that she hadn’t changed a single bit since her ascension, now four or five years ago.
By no means were they withered old hags, of course; each still looked full of vim and vigor, but age had begun to show its cruel stinging stress on their faces. Applejack had laugh lines, for Celestia’s sake.
It all raised the question; what was Twilight going to do when they were all aged old mares in hospital beds, and she was as baby-faced as the day she stepped out of the Aether with Celestia?
Was there anything she could do? Or was she doomed to watch them all die?
She knew the answer. As much as it pained her—as much as it made her chest constrict every time she thought of five gravestones side by side instead of six—she couldn’t deny that she was immortal. She was ageless, timeless, constant; a slap in the face of entropy, and every law she knew of physics and thermodynamics. She had never thought of Celestia’s age before now. How did she continue on when so many ponies around her aged away into dust? How did she continue to face every single day, offering everypony such compassionate and graceful smiles, knowing that by the time she finished blinking they would all be underneath her hooves?
A story that never reached its conclusion was boring. A story that never saw a full stop was one not worth reading, as everypony would never care enough to know it. Was there any point to her own existence now that she didn’t have an ending?
"Oh, Twilight Sparkle!” A voice slashed her musings into ribbons like so much confetti, and Twilight sighed. “Fancy seeing you here!" the voice continued from above.
As the Princess looked up, sure enough, she saw the snake-like body of a certain demigod of chaos floating above her friendship map.Twilight couldn’t even muster the will to morph her face into a snide grimace. "Hello Discord," she sighed, settling for a simple, flat and monotonous greeting while she walked across the room. She had no real destination in mind—not that it mattered anyway, since she could pick a direction and walk for decades, centuries, millennia, never aging a day.
Twilight pushed open the doors at the other end of the room and kept going, leaving the bemused Discord behind. It wasn’t often that his arrival elicited such a reaction, and it disturbed him to no end.
He shook it off, skirting through reality with a snap of his fingers to appear above the princess again. "Oh, no need to sound so excited. Please try to curb your enthusiasm next time," Discord griped as Twilight walked by.
She listlessly kept walking, not even sparing him a parting glance. "It's been a long day," she said, stepping through large double doors into one of the kitchens. Perhaps some food would put some joy back into her heart. Maybe Spike was cooking; she always loved his cooking.
Then again, even Spike would leave her one day, and she wouldn’t be able to sample any of his cooking ever again. Why bother now?
"Oh I know, I know exactly what you mean darling,” came Discord’s voice from in front of her.
Twilight deigned to look up, and her face fell.
Discord had transformed the kitchen into a hair salon, a moustache on his face and garden shears in his hands as he cut another Discord’s hair into a big, black, bushy afro. Several other Discords were sitting in the chairs around the room, waiting to be served. The hairdresser turned to face the Princess and waved a hand, cocking his hips to one side and adopting a slight flange to his voice. “Tell me all about it, marefriend."
Twilight shook her head and turned away from the scene, walking out of the room and muttering, mostly to herself. "What's the point?"
Discord popped into the world in front of her, getting her full attention. He held up a rubber ear;pink, and folded in on itself in ways that made Twilight cringe. It almost reminded her of an ape-like ear, but it was Discord’s follow-up statement to producing the thing that made her blood boil: "I find having an ear to confide in to be most helpful."
The Princess wasn’t in the mood for anything, least of all the being in front of her. Chaos wasn’t something she wanted to keep her company, especially now. "Enough jokes, Discord."
Discord’s eyes twinkled. "Ooh, crabby, aren’t we?"
Twilight ignored the novelty crab-mascot costume that the Draconequus had summoned from thin air, stamping her hoof onto the crystal. "Discord!" she shouted angrily, the floor under her hoof cracking.
Discord saw that now was not the time for games. The Princess was not in a playful mood—not that she ever was to begin with. "Fine, fine.” He snapped his fingers and the costume disappeared. “Despite what you may think, I've grown fond of you over the years, Sparkle. I never thought I'd be friends with a prancing, pretty, purple, pony princess," he made sure to enunciate each ‘p’ sound as though it were the funniest thing in the world.
"Your point?" Twilight would have laughed at her choice of words could she feel but anything.
"My point being,” he said, twisting his body around and bending over backwards to look her in the eye, “that maybe we've reached the part in our relationship where you actually trust me?" He fluttered his eyes slightly, his lips pursed in an overly-emphasised smile that made his cheeks puff out. “Hmm?”
He wasn’t going to go away; if anything, she would only make him more curious the more she rebutted him. Instead, Twilight decided to stare him straight in the eye, and summon all of her apathy into repeating a question she asked earlier. "What's the point, Discord?"
He arched an eyebrow, twirling his face around before his entire body seemed to fold in on itself to get into a matching orientation. "The point to what?" he asked.
"This,” she began, waving a hoof. “Anything. I've noticed it, my friends have noticed it…” she trailed off, pushing open the doors to one of the castle’s many balconies, stepping out into the sunset. “I'm not aging."
"What do you mean?” Discord slithered over the balcony railing a few feet to Twilight’s right, waving a claw and turning all the fur on Twilight’s body to a muted white, her mane a complimentary shade of ashen grey. “I can already see the gray hairs."
Twilight shook her head to dispel the illusion. Discord’s abilities seemed at odds with every rule of magic she knew. If she cared enough, she might have studied him long ago. Duty, friendship and sheer volume of distractions stopped her before; apathy stopped her now.
"No, Discord. I'm not growing older. If anything, I'm growing more powerful. I can run for longer, I can do more exercises, I can exert more magical control, I can fly faster,” she lit her horn, summoning a chain of blue fire. It was drawn from the air around her, a transmutation spell that turned matter into energy without the messy chemical or physical reactions. It swirled and danced in the air, separate strands entwined, joined, parted, belched flame and pure, raw magical power into their surroundings. Twilight could feel the power come from within her, washing over her body and leaving goosebumps in its wake. The static charge of the spell caused her fur to stand on end and her mane to dance in an invisible wind. By all rights, as the strands split and more and more magic was used in the maintenance of the spell, she should have collapsed, drained of all of her latent ability—but she kept going. She felt unstoppable, like she could continue for days. It was, all at once, an exhilarating and bittersweet feeling, as it only proved her hypothesis. “Spells that would have exhausted me five years ago are nothing anymore. I'm immortal.” She dispelled the magic with a thought, and a flick of her horn. “And I've been thinking..."
"Oh, terrible affliction, thinking.” Discord’s gaze wandered away from the display, checking his talons and filing them with a comically oversized nail file. “I try to avoid it as often as I can," he jabbed.
Twilight closed her eyes. She desperately wanted a serious conversation with Discord, but he was testing her every nerve. His voice had become grating far too quickly, and his own careless tone when added to Twilight’s was finally enough to break the mare. She wanted someone to listen. She wanted someone to care. She wanted someone like her who could understand—and who better than a fellow immortal.
"Discord, please!” she walked up to him, rearing up on her hind legs and placing her hooves on his hands.
Discord was brought firmly back into the conversation by the sheer amount of sadness in the mare’s tone. The normally twitchy and restless Discord was oddly still and somber, staring down at her with wide eyes. His claw and paw both grasped ahold of her hooves in a comforting way. He was even running his fingers over her fur to soothe her, almost absently. Twilight noticed the contact, and briefly wondered whether or not Fluttershy’s kindness had started rubbing off on him.
She looked up at him with glistening eyes, full of doubt, of sadness, of rage, and so many other emotions that she hadn’t felt since that same morning. Since she started viewing ponies as clocks, ticking away to their doom. Since she stopped seeing her friends’ faces, and started seeing merely skin draped over bone that would inevitably break off a hundred years in the future.
“If I'm truly immortal, then my life is infinite. I will experience everything in this world eventually, except my own personal death. I will never see my friends again when they pass away.” Her eyes squeezed out a tear. “I’ll never know the joy of growing old with a family,” she sniffed. “I’ll never be a wise old mare passing her wisdom down to her grandchildren, I will always, and forever be—” she choked on the words as though they were the most foul tasting things in all the world “—Princess Twilight Sparkle!"
The wind whistled over the balcony in reply, but nothing else did. Discord paused, twiddling his fingers together with his claws. They were moving in such a complicated pattern that Twilight could barely follow each individual digit. The draconequus was opening and closing his mouth, like a fish straight out of a pond. "I need to…” he trailed off, clearing his throat and stepping away. “I need to run an errand."
Twilight’s eyes squeezed out a fresh bout of tears as she dropped to the floor on shaky legs. She shook her head desperately, keeping her eyes trained on the reflection of Discord, rather than the actual one standing meters away from her. "Please,” she begged him. “Please don't go..."
"This is obviously beyond me, Twilight.” The reflection of the Draconequus wasn't looking at her, but rather, at the pale imitation encased in the crystal beneath her; the damnable crystal pony staring back at her with glassy eyes and a sad frown, trapped inside a mirror sheen like she was inside the realm of the living. She may as well have been that mare—frozen in time and forced to watch the world from behind a screen. “I can't answer your questions,” Discord’s reflection continued. “I can't allay your fears; not alone at least. I will be back, don't go anywhere,” he told her, turning around and raising his fingers.
Her brows knitted in anger. Her eyes flashed up to him will all the rage of a storm. Her hooves dug into the crystal and left gouges in the polished, reflective surface. "If this is another joke—" she hissed, only to be cut off almost immediately.
Discord moved faster than Twilight could blink. In an instant, his warm lion’s paw came to rest on Twilight’s cheek. "Look at me,” he commanded gently, tilting her face up so her lavender eyes met with his yellow ones. “Have I ever been more serious?"
There was no moustache attached to his nose, no monocle over one eye. He wasn’t smiling, his eyes holding no mirth in them. There was a fire she had never seen, burning behind red irises. He had knelt down in front of her, choosing not to appear as though the forces of gravity were his plaything. His eyes were level with hers, but his serpentine body held none of the lithe, chaotic, predator-like grace that was normally associated with him. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, to question him, before his own question registered in her mind. She shook her head in answer. "No. No you haven’t."
He flashed her a snaggletoothed grin and held up his eagle claws. "Then trust me." He snapped his fingers and the air popped. Twilight made a mental note to set up instruments to read thaumic background levels when he did that. It would be interesting to know how the use of chaotic magic differed to the use of more conventional spells, when interacting with the magical spectrum.
Then again, what was the point?
The first thing she noticed was that the sun had stopped moving. It was odd, granted, but not something she particularly cared about either. She could notice everything happening below her in Ponyville. Mrs Cake was closing up Sugarcube Corner, for example, and the town centre was becoming a busy hub of activity as everypony milled about, exchanging the final pleasantries of the day before leaving for their homes. It was monotonous, the same as every other day. Were she not in the middle of an existential crisis, Twilight would have found it charming, as she always had.
Instead, she was wondering how many of them would have gravestones, and how many of them would choose to be cremated. How many of them would wander into the forest, have accidents, contract some incurable disease and be damned to a short life of pain, while she sat in her crystal palace in perfect health, forever young? Would they come to resent her? Celestia and Luna at least ran the country, and Cadance ran an entire empire. Would she end up like them; would she end up revered and placed upon a pedestal, or would she become like Discord; a bitter and twisted creature that exists purely to further her own amusement at the cost of others?
So many questions, and only the passing of time would give her any answers. If anything, she felt more connected with the rest of the universe than ever before, as she could now truly perceive the concept of deep time. Countries and continents would rise and fall while she was on the throne. She would witness the, the elevation and subsequent fall of entire races, entire empires beyond Equestria’s borders. Maybe Equestria as a whole would fall to anarchy during her impressively infinite lifespan. Maybe it would endure. Maybe the country as a whole would become as timeless as she herself was, under the benevolent rule of the princesses, as it always had been.
She heard a quintuplet of pops behind her, and furrowed her brow in confusion. Pushing away from the balcony railing, she peered through the doors to the castle proper, and turned her back to the sun. Was Discord back? If so, then why did he find the need to sound his arrival with what sounded like five different teleportation spells?
"Twilight?" a voice called out from somewhere in the castle, and her ears flicked towards it. She had heard that voice almost every single day since her childhood, and could place it anywhere.
"Princess?” Twilight spoke before she had finished turning her head. Strolling down the corridor, as gracefully as a swan, was her mentor and co-ruler of the nation herself. Celestia offered a smile honed through years of dealing with nobles and other diplomats. It was reserved, cautious, and all at once comforting and worrisome, for Twilight had learnt to recognise it within six months of tutelage.
As the princess approached, Twilight began trotting towards her, confusion evidently clouding her features. She tilted her head as another familiar figure, pink with a three-toned mane, came into view. “Cadance!" Her face lit up despite herself and she broke into a canter, all but tackling the princess that used to watch her as a foal.
A third figure came around the corner, her smiling face gazed down at her from beside Cadance as the pair shared their embrace. A midnight blue coat, with a mane made of stars and galaxies.
Twilight’s brow once again morphed into one of confusion as Cadance let her go. "Luna?” she gasped in shock. Her eyes darted between the three. “What are you all doing here?"
"Discord gathered us,” Celestia explained. “He said it was time we speak to you."
Twilight looked over at the God of Chaos, lurking behind the group, standing with his back against one of the crystal pillars.
"I'm sorry, Twily,” Cadance place her hooves on Twilight’s head and ran them through her lavender mane in the same way her mother used to. It was all she could do not to break down right there, but she couldn’t stop herself from nuzzling into the hooves, letting the display of affection warm her soul. “We should have talked to you about this sooner,” Cadance continued, her voice dripping sadness, “rather than let you become like this."
Each of them wore the same face now, just in different intensities. They were all of concern. Twilight didn’t understand.
“Like what?"
"I've known you for years as my student,” Celestia said, stepping up to the mare and brushing through the matted fur left behind from the tears, “and more recently as my friend. I know when something is bothering you, especially something like this."
"Each of us has struggled with this in our own way, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna sat on the cold crystal floor, momentarily closing her eyes as she was absorbed in thought. She quickly snapped out of it, deciding that there were far more important things to worry about than her own musings at the moment. “Even Discord," she gave Twilight a wry smile and an arched eyebrow, flicking her head towards where the Draconequus stood.
"It's true.” He placed a hand to his head and swept the other one across the corridor, feigning a dramatic reveal. “It's why I was so adamant about fetching the others. Now, my work here is done." He snapped a toothy grin at all of them and went to snap away.
"Oh no you don't!” Cadance lit her horn and her magical aura surrounded Discord’s fingers, prying them apart so as to prevent him from disappearing. “This involves us all!"
Twilight spluttered and shook her head, now thoroughly perplexed, more than when she had peeked in Starswirl’s Journal as a filly. The last time she saw Discord was a few hours ago, if that, and he had suddenly jumped through reality when she had been baring her soul to him. Now, the three other rulers of Equestria and the Crystal Empire to the North were surrounding her, showing her displays of love that she hadn’t received since she was a little filly.
"What is going on?" she tried not to let annoyance seep into her words, but failed spectacularly.
Each princess shared a look before forming a line, as though they had rehearsed the coming speech. Princess Cadance, from her place in the middle of the row, began to speak first. “You have become disillusioned with the world,” she stated. It wasn’t a question, there wasn’t even a hint of inflection in her voice that allowed for any sort of answer, and she soon continued, unabated. “You've noticed your aging has stopped, and your powers are growing.”
Without even giving her student time to nod in reply, Celestia spoke up from her place beside her niece. "You're starting to wonder what's the point if you're going to live forever," she gazed straight into Twilight’s lavender eyes as she spoke.
"Maybe you've started to realise that you are a firm foundation,” Luna spoke up next, “while everything around you will decay and wither."
"And if you are permanent, then there's no point. To anything," Celestia smiled a motherly smile; one that always managed to tug at Twilight’s heartstrings no matter how many times she had seen it. This time, however, it was laced with understanding, and it was too much. She broke.
"M-my friends…” she choked back a sob, shaking her head as she threw her hooves around her old mentor and started bawling her eyes out. In a matter of seconds Celestia’s coat was soaked through, but she didn’t mind. She wrapped her own alabaster hooves around her old student and held her close, wrapping her wings around the young Princess.
“Shh,” she cooed. “Let it come.”
Luna placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. Cadance’s eyes, glistening with her own tears, rested her head on Twilight’s neck as she sobbed.
“They're all going to die,” she clung on a bit tighter as the faces of everyone she had ever loved flashed through her mind. “Starlight, Pinkie Pie,” she began reciting names as they came to her, memorising every detail of their faces as she saw them in her mind. Every moment was precious. “Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Sunset…” she gasped, “Spike," she began wailing anew.
Cadance’s head drooped. It pained her to see her beloved friend like this. "It's okay, it’ll all be alright, Twily."
The use of her old nickname made new faces pass through her memories. "M-my mother…” she said, “my father! My brother!"
"My husband,” Cadance replied. Twilight finally broke away from Celestia to look at her old foalsitter. She was a sorry state, and Cadance felt her heart tighten in her chest a little. She steeled herself and took a deep breath. “We've all been through this, Twilight. We're all still going through this, together," she looked at each of the other princesses in turn, and they both nodded.
Twilight wiped her eyes and sniffed. "How do I not feel this way?"
"You cannot, Twilight,” Luna said. “If you try, you will only become bitter and twisted,"
Twilight turned to face the one member of their group that was lingering in the shadows, watching with something akin to boredom on his face. The others watching him as well. When he noticed them all, he rolled his eyes, and scoffed.
"Oh sure,” he flicked his tail. “Everyone look at the Draconequus in the room!"
Twilight broke away from him, staring down at the floor. Her sadness had left her, replaced by an empty pit that used to be full of so much hope and love for her friends, now it was just a feeling of dread. Dread at the inevitable. “I don’t want these feelings anymore!” she shook her head slowly from side to side. “I can’t…” she trailed off, not knowing how to finish that sentence. “I just can’t.”
Celestia shook her head and tapped her hoof on the ground. “Listen to me, Twilight; you are not weak!” she declared adamantly. “You are by far the strongest mare I have ever known, bar none! No one else in this entire world could have finished Starswirl’s spell,” she leaned down and captured Twilight’s gaze with her own, forcing her to make eye contact. “No one could have taken all Alicorn Magic in existence and merge it with her own without going insane!” she smiled and sat back up, fluffing out her wings as she came to a conclusion. “What she needs is something to keep her grounded. A tether, if you will,” she nodded to the others.
Twilight cocked her head to one side and furrowed her brow. “A tether?”
"Discord found that his way to cope was spreading Chaos,” Celestia motioned her head, then raised her hoof towards her sister. “Luna immerses herself in books, and dreamwalking. I take pleasure in the little things; tea sets and cakes. Cadance spreads love in any way she can,” she smiled at her niece fondly. “Be it leaving a pleasant note for somepony, or helping them realise their love for someone else."
"Then,” Twilight processed the information she was given. She needed a hobby, basically. Something seemingly mundane that could interest her for thousands of years. Research was her hobby now, friendship was her life, but she needed something else, apparently. Something to kindle a passion in her heart that would never die. She looked at each immortal in the room. “What do I do?"
"That is something we cannot tell you, Twilight,” Celestia shook her head. “Each of us is different, and beyond what we do in our spare time, we cope with it in our daily life differently,” she said.
Twilight thought about it. They each had hobbies, but there was something else, too?
At her student’s bewilderment Celestia turned her head. “Discord?"
The Draconequus pushed himself off of the pillar, finally given an opportunity to join the conversation. He floated through the air, morphing into a clown’s outfit as he went with a snap of his fingers. "I make jokes,” he said. “I play pranks. As embodiment of chaos I can't sit still."
"I design the night sky,” Luna spoke next, her horn lighting up with magic and causing pinpricks of light to appear in a blue aura. “Hundreds upon thousands of stars for everypony to look at,” she let meteors wash over the display, nebulae formed and dissipated, formed new stars and exploded into colourful clouds of gas anew, all in seconds. Luna dispelled the magic and smiled. “Delicate artwork like that gives me time to think. I seek not to escape, but to embrace it."
Celestia watched her, then turned back to Twilight. “I work tirelessly to run a country with my sister. I protect the ponies in this land, and the lands beyond. I bring light and warmth to the world with my sun," she looked out of the balcony doors at the late sunset. The clock read seven PM. She winced. The very late sunset.
"I run an empire,” Cadance spoke up, “I love my husband, I love my subjects, I love my friends. A world without love, especially for an immortal,” she shook her head firmly, “is no world I want to be a part of,"
"What do you think we all have in common?" Celestia asked Twilight a question as if they were in class. She knew the best way to make this stick was to stimulate Twilight’s critical thinking, challenge her to come to her own conclusions.
Celestia could almost see the gears turning in the younger Alicorn’s mind. SHe could very easily cast a spell to watch the young mare bounce ideas off of each other, break apart and analyse each and every syllable of what was spoken faster than she could say ‘marzipan mascarpone meringue madness’.
Twilight found a common thread between each of them, except for Discord’s. But, Celestia had very specifically said ’all’. “I don’t think I know,” She reluctantly gave up.
"We make the lives of our ponies comfortable. Enjoyable, even. It's part of the reason I wanted to reform an old enemy of mine," Celestia explained. She would have been a tad disappointed, had she not realised that the question was a tad cruel for including the embodiment of chaos, who had arguably never made anypony’s or anyONE's life enjoyable in any sense of the phrase.
"Now I'm limited to playing jokes only when others enjoy them. Gag!" Discord’s tongue rolled out of his mouth, down onto the crystal, and about six meters away from the questioning quintet.
"Discord," Celestia rolled her eyes.
He pulled on his tongue and let it go. It retracted into his mouth like a window shade, fluttering and disappearing in an instant. "Oh all right. There is a quaint charm when both parties enjoy the prank,” he conceded. “Your pretty pink friend is a riot."
"The point is we no longer view our immortality as a burden,” Luna said. “Lives come and go all the time, hundreds upon thousands of souls pass into the Beyond every year, we try to make their lives as easy as possible. Sometimes we fail." Each princess hung their heads.
Twilight thought about it. There was merit, even a poetic sense of righteousness in the immortal caring for the mortal. But still, Twilight noticed a glaring issue with that mindset right away. A fundamental part of it that made it almost pointless.
"But we can't care for everypony," she said to them all.
"No we can't,” Celestia agreed sadly. There was a pause between them all. “Which is why we sit in our ivory towers away from it all. It's why we rule,” she revealed. “While we rule, we can help as many ponies as is possible, and we can do so with legal discourse,” she paused as though remembering something painful. A memory that almost made her perfect mask, honed from thousands of years, break. “It's why we rarely mingle and make friends.”
"What about Discord?” Twilight asked, pointing a hoof at him. “He doesn’t rule a kingdom."
"I was never one for thrones,” he waved her away. “I have terrible posture anyway, positively horrific. Could you imagine me as a withered old draconequus with a hunchback?" he snapped his fingers and a beard the size of his body appeared. Wrinkles tainted his skin and his bones cracked as a walking stick appeared from a puff of smoke. He teetered for a moment for comedic effect.
Twilight giggled at his antics despite herself. "So what do I do?” she asked. “How can I abandon my friends and rule with such a…” she searched for a delicate way to say it. “A distant hoof?" she decided.
"My advice to you would be not to try," Celestia said.
"But I don't understand!” Twilight snorted in frustration. They were telling her that she should help ponies, that she should rule, and then they told her that she should keep her friends. Wasn’t that favouritism? Wasn’t that something that would get in the way of her ruling an entire kingdom How could she make time for friends when there were so many other aspects of ruling that she hadn’t even seen yet? “If I'm meant to help ponies,” she continued, her eyes squinting at something far away as it slowly dawned on her. “Then how can I be friends with some and not... others?"
Celestia nodded. Her smile morphed into one of pride. She was glad to see that she hadn’t lost her knack for teaching. "Now you're beginning to see why you are the Princess of Friendship. Cadance has struck a balance,” she motioned towards said Princess. “Ruling over a land whose very foundation is built upon the idea she embodies," she still got slightly giddy whenever she thought about it. If there was anyone in the room that had a bigger heart than herself, it was probably Cadance. "An entire empire that requires her unconditional love, and she gives it willingly. I'm so proud of her for that."
"We would advise you to do the same, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said.
"But,” Twilight stopped her in her tracks. “How could I possibly build an entire kingdom on friendship?"
Celestia slipped back into her old ways. Back when she was simply an adviser to the Equestrian Royal Family. Back when she was first beginning to cultivate her magic and slowly take over from the Unicorn Tribe. Her voice was full of wisdom, almost sage-like. "Friendship is no different than harmony, my student. A harmonious land is a prosperous land. There is no better example of harmony than the town of Ponyville,” she wrapped a wring about Twilight’s withers and led her to the balcony. Many of the ponies from before had gone home, but there were still some out there. Applejack was selling the last of her homemade apple pies and fritters, while a Unicorn helped repair her sign hanging above her stall.
“Where hundreds of ponies work together to make each other's day a bit brighter,” Celestia continued. “From the Earth Ponies tilling the fields, to the Pegasi maintaining the weather,” she tilted her head up to the sky. The weather team were clearing away the day’s clouds, allowing those below an unobstructed view to the beautiful golden red sunset. “Even to the Unicorns that create feats of magic that, while unappreciated, make everypony's day a bit easier."
"Treat Ponyville as your own, Twilight,” Luna stepped up beside them. “Treat it like your own burgeoning kingdom, and the rest shall come."
Twilight pushed away from Celestia’s embrace, backing up into Cadance and staggering for a few moments. "I can't make a kingdom on Canterlot's doorstep!" she cried.
"No you cannot.” Shaking her head, Celestia agreed. “And I wouldn't ask you to do anything while you still have a life here.”
Confused, once again, as was the norm, Twilight pressed for clarification. "Princess?"
Celestia couldn’t stop an eye-roll of frustration. "I've told you before, Twilight; we are equals in every possible way, and you have proven so time and again," she spoke with such sincerity that Twilight blushed at the praise.
"What we say to you now,” Cadance said, “we say to you as your friends, not as your mentor, ruler or,” she chuckled, “or even your foalsitter."
"You may be a Princess, you may be ready for a crown and a throne, you may be ready to let go of your friends to rule, and that is a very mature thing of you," Celestia nodded.
"But your friends aren't ready to let you go," a deep baritone came from behind Twilight.
Slowly turning around, Twilight fixed him with a curious look. "Discord?"
He puffed his chest out indignantly. "I can offer good advice, once in a blue moon, and wouldn't you know it,” he grinned, pointing his fingers towards the sky as he clicked them. “Look at that!"
Everypony turned around. Rising underneath the sun was a moon, as blue as Luna’s mane and twice as bright.
Luna wheeled back around with anger in her eyes. "Discord!"
He closed his eyes and folded his arms, unapologetically. "It'll help me prove a point,” he declared, kneeling in front of Twilight once again. “It took you, Fluttershy, and everyone to make me see the value of friendship,” he began. “You are right in that your friends are impermanent pieces in this world, but memories, however brief in the making, are eternal. Do you understand me, Sparkle?” he asked, not continuing until he got an answer.
She nodded shakily, the sudden influx of raw, actual insight from one of the most chaotic beings… ever was disturbing.
“The most important thing you could possibly do, and the whole point of your being here, is to make memories,” he prodded her chest with each and every one of his next points. “Laugh with your friends, cry with them, joke with them, fight, reconcile, defeat evils, go on adventures... live, Twilight.”
"Live?” she echoed.
“Celestia will tell you that she still remembers her own friends. Luna probably remembers hers unless she’s gone a tad…” his eyes twinkled. “Looney!”
“You couldn’t resist, could you?” Luna growled.
“No. And shall I tell you a secret, Twilight?” Discord leaned closer, his eyes flicking left and right conspiratorially.
“What?” Twilight whispered back, playing along with the bit.
“I used to have friends. Cutting my ties with them early was the worst thing I could have done,” he stood up and brushed himself off, snapping his fingers towards the three others. “Tell me, Kay-Kay, what did I do?”
“You went on a rampage when they died with things left unsaid,” Celestia answered immediately.
“Indeed, and what happened?” he asked again, snapping his fingers.
“You were encased in stone for a thousand years,” Luna said.
Discord nodded.
“You were placed in the gardens as a trophy,” Cadance chirped.
Discord blinked and looked at them all.
“You became the roost of several hundred bird families over the centuries,” Celestia tittered.
Discord ground his teeth to ash and regrew them instantly.
“You were forgotten for about two hundred years until Celestia reopened the gardens,” Twilight added her own point to the conversation, remembering that she had read about the event in a history book somewhere.
“Yes. Thank you all. I’m so glad I have friends with such good memories!” he leaned close to Celestia with narrow eyes and a beguiling, fake smile.
Celestia lit her horn and conjured a zip-lock for his mouth. He drew back in surprise at the fact that another creature had surprised him, and with one of his own tricks.
“Friendship is the most valuable part of our world, Twilight” the alabaster princess said. “Which makes you perhaps the most valuable member of our royalty. You asked what the point is to anything? You asked why you should go on when the world will die? It’s because they will die,” she turned back to the town of Ponyville and took a deep breath of the countryside air. “You will regret every memory of your friends if you let them go. You will come to resent every time they spoke, every time they laughed, every time they cared,” she tried to stop her voice from wavering, but she couldn’t Only the ponies most well-versed in her mannerisms could spot it, but it was there. She turned back around with a bittersweet look in her eyes. “Treasure them, for however brief a time, and hold on tightly to their memories, and they shall never die.”
Twilight’s eyes were glistening again, but this time they weren’t tears of sadness. She felt the hole in her chest full of hope again, renewed and rekindled to even greater heights than before. She lunged forward and wrapped Celestia up in a hug, which was all-too-happily returned.
“Thank you,” Twilight said, pulling away and hugging Luna and Cadance in turn. “Thank you all so much,” she turned around and even went up to Discord, who recoiled away with a look of disgust.
“Ew, can we not do the hugging thing,?” he wiggled his fingers awkwardly, unsure of the whole thing.
Twilight laughed and shook her head. “Discord!”
He grumbled and knelt down, opening his arms. Twilight wrapped her hooves around him and squeezed. “Let it be known in the record that I was opposed to this,” he said.
Twilight held on for a few more seconds, suddenly feeling the pressure increase. Apparently Discord had drawn the other princesses in for a second round of hugging with Twilight, and the purple princess enjoyed the warmth. “Thank you,” she repeated again.
“Anytime, Twilight,” Cadance replied, kissing her sister-in-law’s forehead. “We will always, always be here for you. Forever.”
“I know,” she smiled. “I think I’m okay now.”
Discord let the hug go and slithered back over to one of the pillars, muttering something about ‘friendship cooties’.
There was nothing else to be said. A pleasant silence filled the room as each Princess turned back to the balcony and enjoyed the sunset.
Eventually, the only sound that could be heard beyond the wind whistling over them, was Luna, as she scuffed her hoof against the crystal, her ears flickering. “Sister?”
“Luna?” Celestia looked at her questioningly.
“What are our plans for the morrow?” Luna clicked her jaw together as she waited for her sister to answer.
Celestia mentally went over the calendar for the next day. “Well, aside from raising and setting the sun and moon respectively, and aside from Court, nothing.”
“Cadance?” Luna turned to the other side of the line. “Would your husband be averse to you spending a night with us?”
The princess shook her head, shifting on her hooves. “I don’t think so, why?”
“It’s just that I have just remembered a curious custom that friends do nowadays, a ‘sleepover’ if I’m remembering correctly,” Luna grinned toothily.
“Oh,” Discord exclaimed from behind them in his usual, mocking tone. “Are we going to braid each other’s manes and give each other makeovers?” he summoned a long golden mane of hair, and began braiding it in a Prench twist.
“No amount of makeup will ever help you, Discord,” Luna jabbed at him.
“My my, I see you’ve found yourself a sense of humour, Moonbutt. If only just a sense,” Discord riposted in kind.
“Still, it would be funny to see Discord with blush and mascara, wouldn’t you say, auntie?” Cadance grinned evilly.
Discord’s face fell.
“Verily,” Luna agreed, her own smile turning positively predatory as the two Princesses pushed off from their seated positions, and slunk over to the Draconequus. “I believe this night will be remembered for quite some time.”
Discord quickly raised his hands to snap away.
“Cadance!” Luna cried.
Cadance’s horn had already come to life with the same spell from earlier, blocking his magic simply by manipulating his fingers. Both mares jumped at Discord and tackled him, dragging him off down the corridors.
“Unhand me!” Discord yelled. “Let me go—Celestia help!” he gazed back at Celestia.
She was hiding her face behind a wing, and merely shook her head. “Not a chance.”
Discord gaped in shock. “Let me go or the moon will stay blue forever!” he threatened.
Luna paused, giving it a consideration, before shrugging. “I rather like it that way,”
They pulled him around the corner. He gripped ahold of the doorway with his claws and dig them into the crystal. Slowly, he was inched away, scratching deeply into the crystal. The last sound Twilight heard before Discord was dragged away, was a strangled cry of “Help!”.
Twilight laughed uproariously at the display, and even Celestia let out a rather undignified snort.
After a while she merely sighed happily. “I suppose I had better lower the sun.,” she said “I don’t want ponies to get concerned anymore than they already are,” she lit her horn a she spoke, the sun beginning to droop down towards the horizon once more. As it began to kiss the mountain ranges, Twilight watched her mentor closely.
“Celestia?” she asked.
“Yes, Twilight?” Celestia hummed.
“I…” Twilight wanted to say something. Something as meaningful as what her teacher had done for her that night. She settled on something she had already said, but this time she put every ounce of her emotions into it that she possibly could. “Thank you for everything,”
“You don’t have to keep thanking me, Twilight. You would have done the same thing for me,” Celestia assured her, as confident in her assumptions as she always was.
The only way the night could have gotten any better was if—Twilight perked up. “May I send messages to my friends?” she asked hopefully.
Celestia considered it for a moment before smiling. “I would say the more the merrier. It has been quite some time since we caught up with the other elements, and I’m sure Rarity would…” she cleared her throat and put on the most dignified accent she possibly could have. “Simply die to mingle with royalty, darling.”
Twilight giggled to herself. “Nice impression.”
“I thought it rather fetching myself,” Celestia winked.
“Spike!” Twilight called.
The dragon came running through the doors, pointing back down the corridor behind hi. “Twilight?” he began, scratching the back of his head with a very, very bewildered look on his face. “Did you know that Cadance and Luna are chasing Discord through the corridors?”
“I did yes,” Twilight said, as if it were normal. “We’re having a sleepover. Would you send a letter to everypony?”
He shook his head and snapped a crisp salute to the mare. “Right away!” he chorused, scampering off to fetch quills and parchment.
Celestia looked down at her student as she watched her assistant leave. “You still seem troubled,” she nudged Twilight with a wing.
“It’s just…” Twilight could feel doubt eating away at her like a parasite. “They’re still going to die, aren’t they?”
“They will,” Celestia nodded. “That is the way of the world. But remember how I told you to keep their memories?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes,”
“Keeping them alive might be more literal than you think. Memories are a gateway, Twilight,” she told her student. She had to be careful lest she reveal too much “In your studies of friendship, you will eventually come to find that it transcends all boundaries, even the metaphysical. After all,” the Princess tittered to herself, covering her mouth with a wing demurely as she offered her student a wink. “Friendship is magic.”
